On Clusters and Clustering: From Atoms to Fractals (Random Materials and Processes)

This book attempts to answer why there is so much interest in clusters. Clusters occur on all length scales, and as a result occur in a variety of fields. Clusters are interesting scientifically, but they also have important consequences technologically. The division of the book into three parts roughly separates the field into small, intermediate, and large-scale clusters. Small clusters are the regime of atomic and molecular physics and chemistry. The intermediate regime is the transitional regime, with its characteristics including the onset of bulk-like behaviour, growth and aggregation, and the beginning of materials properties. Large-scale clusters reflect more condensed-matter and materials science aspects and it is in this regime that fractals make their most dramatic appearance. This well-integrated and pedagogical overview of the wide field of clusters in which both theoretical and experimental work is covered, should be of interest not only to students, advanced undergraduates and graduate students, but also to researchers in the various subfields surveyed.